In the event of a small offset frontal vehicle collision, such as where the vehicle impacts an object (e.g., another vehicle, a tree, a pole, etc.) laterally outside the main front frame, the front wheel nearest the crash can be driven back toward the adjacent hinge pillar and side sill member, both disposed immediately behind the wheel. This can result in crash energy being driven toward the side sill member by the wheel and outside the main front frame. This is not preferred as the main front frame is the primary energy structure intended for handling frontal crashes.
More particularly, during such a small overlap frontal crash, the front wheel nearest the crash, which is typically constructed stiffer than the vehicle cabin, can become trapped between the object struck and the lower portion of the vehicle hinge pillar. When this occurs, and absent any countermeasures, it is possible that the wheel could directly load and damage the vehicle safety cage or vehicle cabin and thereby intrudes into the occupant compartment. This has the potential to cause high occupant injuries. Obviously, this would be unacceptable so certain countermeasures are implemented to avoid this scenario. For example, one conventional method for addressing this concern is to add a large amount of reinforcements to the safety cage to make it stiffer than the wheel. Unfortunately, while this solution can eliminate the problem with the wheel compromising the vehicle safety cage or vehicle cabin, this greatly increases the weight of the vehicle frame.